Staff redundancies and store closures at Wilko have been suspended while administrators, PwC consider two rescue bids, which emerged over the Bank Holiday weekend.
The Guardian has reported that Doug Putman, owner of HMV in the UK and Toys R Us in Canada, is understood to have increased his bid on Friday’s deadline, offering to take on up to 350 of the 400 stores, and to ensure that the main creditors were paid. His previous bid was to save 200 stores.
The second offer has emerged from M2 Capital, a private equity firm and restructuring specialist. M2 is understood to have put forward a £90m bid which would keep the entire chain trading. The company wrote to PwC to question whether the bid process was fair and transparent, as it was given a deadline to provide details of its funding on a UK bank holiday.
Andy Prendergast, national secretary of the GMB union, which represents many Wilko staff, commented: “There appears to be a glimmer of hope, but there is still a long way to go. We don’t want to get carried away as our members deserve certainty, but we are hopeful that jobs can be protected.”
A government spokesperson said: “While this is a commercial decision for the company, we understand that this will be a concerning time for workers at Wilko.”
